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Friday, May 20, 2011

Internal Consistency

Actually, I'm not going to be talking about molten chocolate lava cake, or even the softness of your internal organs.

I'm talking about your characters.

It's come up occasionally in my writing, or my crit partner's writing. Just yesterday, I was discussing the HBO series the Wire with some friends and we had a friendly argument. Was Ziggy's murderous breaking point in keeping with what his character? My friend and I thought not; our spouses disagreed.

Incongruous behavior. When you see it, you get a funny feeling. The "that's not right" sensation that throws the reality of that world into question.

Do your characters ever suffer from it? Have you ever read a passage in a book where you thought, "That kind of came out of nowhere, and it makes me not believe what's going on."

Yes--I think one reason an author might stray from that consistency is for the sake of convenience. When I sense that a character is doing something that doesn't quite fit, it's usually because that's what works for where the author wants the plot to go. It doesn't really "work", but the temptation is there.

Okay, so am I the only one who is hungry for molten chocolate cake now? This is a great analogy. I'm still trying to get deep enough into my characters, so this issue hasn't come up...mostly because I don't know them well enough yet.

I hope my characters are consistent. I try. The other day, I was reading a book and came across character inconsistency. It was totally jarring. I wish I could remember which book and what exactly threw me, but the memory fails.

I guess it's ok if there is a reason/are reasons why the character acted in the wholly unexpected way than what's expected!I guess if the narrative is strong enough and the situation where the character who is acting out is not contrived, then I should think it's ok!

Great post! Yes, it's really important to keep a character IN CHARACTER. Not always easy to do, but it's so important. If you're writing about a tough character, if tragedy strikes, are they really going to run and hide? Of course not, that's not their character. Readers pick up on this s it's very important to be consistent.

All the time, even in books that are published and thriving. There's this scene in THE DUFF where the main character kisses a guy that repulses her. It's a pivotal kiss which acts as catalyst for the plot. But I just could not picture it. Not when she'd gone on and on about how this guy gave her the creeps.

I've had a CP tell me she can't see my mc doing something, but my other CP totally sees it happening. They're only minor points (teensy minor points). Nothing to freak out over. Fortunately the one who sees it happening also reads and writes YA. ;)

I was reading a fantastic book (which I will politely not name) and out of nowhere one of the characters suddenly was gravely ill. It didn't fit with the rest of this upbeat book and I felt somewhat betrayed by the author. Of course, i had to finish it to find out what happened. A shame. As a writer, this was a good experience to make sure I never do that.

As much as I love Madmen, at times I feel the writers take way too many liberties just to remain wacky.It is difficult to analyze my own work for inconsistencies, but my beta readers have helped immensely.

Sometimes writers have a pre-ordained plot twist but the characters have grown into their own beings. When the plot twist no longer fits your characters' personalities, ditch the plot twist and step back, looking for another. As always, you have a thought-provoking post, Roland

For me, it's a fine line between writing a character that's realistic and writing a character that's cliche. I personally don't want to read about people who do exactly what I'd expect them to do - but how do we make them surprising yet believable? So tricky.

So true. Sometimes we need to remember characterization needs to be consistent. Do we want a "surprise"? Heck, yeah! Can it be one that doesn't sound like the character at all? Heck, no! Throws the reader off.

I try really hard not to let this happen in my own work, but it's hard to see it when you're so close to your writing! I recently found it in a CP's work, though... tough macho man running from a monster suddenly starts crying. That was odd. However, with the right motivation added to the scene, it could work. I wonder if sometimes the writer just forgets to explain to the reader/audience WHY this seemingly random action occurred... it makes sense in the author's head, but we need to be shown the reasoning behind it.

My current WIP is full of incongruous behaviour of my MC. She developed and my writing changed as I went. Now that I'm revising I'm trying to figure out who she really is, and make sure all her actions are in line with that.

Yes! My husband and I went to a movie last weekend, and discussed this very thing the whole way home. The movie had great potential, but was half-baked - and just like you said - the gooey center wasn't warm.

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